death and life

It is a sad week at our house. Monday morning I found that our bird had died, only a couple weeks after I finally got around to introducing him on this blog. I’m not sure exactly what caused it, but I suspect it had something to do with moving his cage to the window beneath the air conditioning vent. He really was just a baby in parrot years, so we are all shocked and heartbroken. I know there are many out there with the opinion that losing a bird is much like losing a fish or a hamster. But it just isn’t so. He was so full of personality. He wanted to interact with us and spend time with us, and he spent his whole life doing everything he could to steal the spotlight and get everyone’s attention. I feel absolutely awful because I know that most likely this could all have been prevented if I had thought a little more carefully before rearranging furniture.

The kids took it much harder than I thought they would. My oldest said he wanted to build a time machine out of his K’nex so we could go back to when we still had Frasier. My 5 year old said he didn’t feel like playing and he just wanted to lay in his bed. Do I think we will get another bird? No way. They are much too delicate and completely dependent upon me not being an idiot. I couldn’t go through this again. From now on our house will be a little cleaner, a little quieter, and a whole lot lonelier.

I feel like God has given us this gift of the baby birds on our porch to bring a little joy into such a sad time. I’m grateful that He is better at caring for his creation than I am. Almost all of their baby fuzz is gone, so I know they will probably only be here for a few more days. We took a quick picture of the babies and the proud parents watching nearby.